Thank you, Edward
by Amber Talamasca
Summary: This is what I think should have happened when Edward left Bella in New Moon. Bella is finally standing up for herself. One-shot/Bellice


**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, **

Thank you Edward.

"So there you have it. We are leaving and I don't love you. I'm sorry I used you, but it was necessary to keep up the illusion of being human." Edward stood there looking at me, his face devoid of any emotion. I remained silent while I let his words sink into me. Could it be true? Could he really be leaving me? Was this it?

It sure seemed to be that way. I sank to my knees, overcome by a torrent of emotions. Edward of course misunderstood me as he started to rant again. "This really is best for you too. You have your entire life ahead of you, being with us would have only brought you into danger. Even more danger then you yourself attract. It…" I raised my hand to stop him.

He looked at me curiously as I gathered my thoughts and put them into words. "Thank you Edward. I've fallen out of love with you a while ago, but I had no idea how to tell you. I still love you but I'm not in love with you anymore. I didn't want to hurt you. It took my a while to figure out my real feelings, but I've known for months now that it wasn't you I was really in love with."

I finally looked up at Edward to look him in the eyes and saw his mouth drop open. His golden eyes had turned black and inadvertently I shrank back a bit. "You WHAT?!?" he screamed at me.

"What are you? Bipolar? So it's ok for you to tell me you don't love me, but its not ok for me to tell you the same? Didn't you just tell me I should move on? Make up your mind Edward."

"Here I am, breaking my own heart just to keep you safe, and you decide you're not even in love with me? Do you have any idea how hard it was to make the decision to leave you behind? To keep you safely away from my world?" Edward didn't even notice he just spilled the true reason he was leaving. I did though.

"And that is exactly why it is over. What we had wasn't a relationship of equals. You make entirely too many decision for me without consulting me. You keep things from me trying to keep me safe but by not knowing I'm actually in more danger. Maybe I wouldn't be such a danger magnet if I knew what to avoid Edward. Did you ever think of that?" It felt good to finally be able to say outloud what I'd been thinking for so long now.

"You have no idea what is out there! Knowing it would only bring you more danger. Don't you know how much I love you? How can you even say it's not me you're in love with? Wait.. what..."

Edward may have perfect memory of what I had said, but the true meaning only seemed to dawn on him now. He stuttered for a moment, and finally asked, "Who? Don't tell me it's that Mike. If it is then please call it off, you have no idea how vile his thoughts are.."

I cut him off. Did he really think so low of me that I'd fall in love with Mike? "It's not Mike." I answered shortly.

"Eric or Tyler then? I know I'm not worthy of you, but those humans don't even come close to being worthy of you."

Once again I cut him short. Was he really so full of himself that he thought he had all the answers, or did he think so little of me? "Not human either Edward, I...", but Edward was already continuing his guessing.

"Oh god.. please tell me its not Jake or any of the Quileute pack?" This halted me for a second. Jake is not human? This was certainly new to me. Ah well, it was just another thing he kept from me, I was used to it by now, I'd find out later.

Edward seemed to take my hesitation to answer for confirmation. "You can't do that Bella, they are dangerous, they have no sense of control whatsoever! They..."

For the last time I cut him off. "For god sake Edward, it's not any of them. Though maybe you do owe me an explanation of what the Quileute's are."

"Not human, not Quileute, then what Bella?"

"She's a vampire Edward." I stated calmly.

"Vampire?!? You really are a danger magnet aren't you? I'm leaving to keep you safe an you already have another vampire... wait... she? You left me for a girl?", indignation was dripping of his voice as he said this.

"I left you? Whoa there big boy. You left me, remember? You're the one making all the decisions. You've set all our limits, you told me where to go and when, you were the one who decided what i could and could not know. YOU are the one who decided I'd be better off without you. I really don't think you've got any right to accuse me of leaving you."

He crossed the clearing at vampire speed, his arms stretched for me and his eyes black as the night. I barely had time to brace for impact, but it never came. A large crash sounded just left of me, followed by heavy creaking sounds. I looked up again just in time to see a giant tree toppling over. She lay there sprawled on top of Edward for a second, before jumping off of him with more grace then should be possible and positioned herself in between me and him.

Edward scrambled up slowly all the while glaring at my savior.

"I had to Edward, you were gonna kill her. I saw her disappear from our future. I know it wasn't intentional, but she can't handle your frustration. She's still human Edward! How could you let yourself go like that? After all the talk about it being better for her and forcing us to leave, you almost go and singlehandedly end her yourself!"

Edward looked enraged as Alice started to talk, but slowly i saw realization dawn on his face, which quickly turned to a pained look and from there evolved into self pity. "This is why we had to leave Alice! She's not safe around us, she deserves so much better!"

There we go again, I thought to myself. He was partly right though, I deserved better then him, nor was i safe with him apparently. I deserved to make my own choices, make my own mistakes if that was what my decisions would be, but i also deserved to make them fully informed. I wanted to say answer him but Alice beat me to it.

"You are the one who is not safe for her Edward, you refused to turn her, yet your temper wont allow her to live a human life either. Did you have any idea how hurt she would have been if she did still love you while you left? Have you seen the months she would have been a zombie? The danger she would have gotten herself into just to hear your voice? Those were the visions i had of her at first Edward, THAT is why I pushed you to stay with her, and I thought it had worked. That future disappeared a while back. I thought I'd succeeded in keeping her alive by pushing her to you. It wasn't what I would've wished for but at least she'd be alive and happy."

She paused for a moment, probably more for dramatic effect then anything else. She obviously didnt need it to catch a breath. "It wasn't till you've told her of your so-called 'brilliant plan to keep her safe', that i found the real reason her future changed back then. It was then that I saw you attacking my Bella and I sped here as fast as I could, and even then i was barely in time to save her."

Wait, did i hear that right? My Bella, did she really say that? Could she really feel the same way I did? I was distracted from further pondering by a tortured moan coming from Edward, who looked torn between fight or flight. Alice crouched in front of me. For such a small pixie she was looking damned dangerous. And sexy.

Focus Bella! You're in danger here!

Finally Edward made up his mind, he threw another pained look in my direction, turned on his heels and disappeared from sight within a blink. All tension drained out of my body and my knees gave way as I started sobbing. Before i could hit the ground though, two small, cold and incredibly strong arms caught me and pressed my body tight against hers.

"I never wanted to hurt him Alice, I really didn't. I thought he was giving me a painless way out." Guilt wracked through my body as Alice stroked a hand through my hair.

"I know it doesn't help much love, but it was his own fault, what he did could have devastated you if you'd still been in love with him, and he went on to do it regardless, never considering you might be worse off. He fears the monster within him so much that he allows his fear and thus his monster, to rule him. He'll get over it, it will take a while, but he will."

I looked up through my tears into Alice' eyes. She called me love. First my Bella, and now love. but were they just terms of endearment, or did she mean more. Dare I hope that she actually feels as I do? She did see my confession in her vision, does that mean she knows who my heart now belongs to? I haven't really told Edward, but did she figure it out from the hints? Should I flat out ask her? Nah, I wouldn't dare to.

As I was making up my mind Alice was bouncing up and down, till finally she burst out, "Would you please make up your mind whether you'll tell me that you love me? Here, I'll make it easier, I told you I saw you as part of the family didn't I? I never claimed it was with Edward though. Will you be mine for all of eternity?"

For a moment I forgot to breathe, she felt the same way. Wait... Did she just mean that literally? "Eternity? You mean as in....", I didn't dare to finish in fear of her meaning something else.

With a mischievous glint in her eye she nodded, "Yes, as in..."

All my dreams and all wishes were realized in that one word I spoke next.

"Yes!"


End file.
